# Volume Quickstart

Volumes are network-attached block storage. You can use them with Droplets or Kubernetes clusters, move or resize them, and create snapshots at any time.

## Add New Volumes to Droplets

You can [add a new volume to an existing Droplet](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/create/index.html.md) or while [creating a new Droplet](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/create/index.html.md#additional-storage).

1. In the top-right of the [DigitalOcean Control Panel](https://cloud.digitalocean.com), click **Create**, then select **Volume Block Storage**. In the **Add a volume** window, under **Select Volume Size**, select a size for your volume. You can enter a custom size or choose a fixed size: **100 GB**, **500 GB**, or **1000 GB**.
2. Under **Select Droplet to Attach to**, select an existing Droplet to attach your new volume to. If you haven’t created a Droplet yet, you can [create a Droplet with a new volume](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/create/index.html.md#additional-storage) in the **Additional Storage** section, and then click **Add Volume**.
3. Under **Name Volume**, choose a name for your new volume or use the autogenerated volume name.
4. Under **Choose Configuration Options**, choose how to format and mount the volume. You can **automatically format and mount**, which applies default settings and mounts the volume, or **manually format and mount**, which attaches the volume so you can [format and mount it yourself](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/create/index.html.md#format-mount) over SSH.

   If you choose to automatically format and mount your volume, select a filesystem appropriate for your use case:

   - **Ext4 (recommended)**: General-purpose workloads due to its broad compatibility and reliability.
   - **XFS**: Large filesystems or write-heavy workloads where higher scalability is beneficial.

   Automatic and manual setup both format the volume with ext4, mount it into `/mnt` with the options `defaults,nofail,discard,noatime`, and update `/etc/fstab` for persistent mounting across reboots.
5. Click **Create Volume** to create your new volume. Volumes are created in the same region and project as the Droplet they are attached to. Your new volume appears on the **Volumes** page.

## Move Volumes to Different Droplets

You can [move volumes between different Droplets](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/mount-unmount/index.html.md) in the same datacenter.

1. [Unmount the volume](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/mount-unmount/index.html.md#unmount) to prevent OS-level errors.
2. On the **Volumes** page, find the volume you want to move. Click **More**, then click **Detach from Droplet**, and in the confirmation window, click **Confirm**.
3. In the same **More** menu, click **Attach to Droplet**, and under the **Droplet** column, enter the name of the new Droplet.
4. [Mount the volume](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/mount-unmount/index.html.md#mount) to make it accessible to the new Droplet.

## Increase the Size of Volumes

If you need more storage space, you can [increase the size of a volume](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/increase-size/index.html.md).

1. On the **Volumes** page, find the volume you want to resize. On its right, click **More**, then click **Increase size** to open the **Increase volume size** window.
2. Select or enter a new size that is at least 1 GB larger than the current volume. This change is irreversible.

**Warning**: Changes to a filesystem during resizing can lead to data loss. Before resizing, we recommend you [take a volume snapshot](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/snapshots/how-to/snapshot-volumes/index.html.md) to back up your data.

3. After choosing a new size, click **Resize volume**.
4. Expand the filesystem to use the additional space. For Ext4, use `resize2fs`. For XFS, use `xfs_growfs`.

Volumes are unpartitioned by default. If you [manually partitioned your volume](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/expand-partitions/index.html.md) when creating it, you must [expand the final partition](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/expand-partitions/index.html.md) before expanding the filesystem.

You cannot decrease the size of a volume because of the risk of data loss and filesystem corruption.

## Delete Volumes

[Deleting a volume](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/delete-detach/index.html.md#delete) permanently and irreversibly destroys the volume and its contents.

1. On the **Volumes** page, next to the volume you want to delete, click **More**, then click **Delete**.
2. In the confirmation window, click **Confirm** to delete the volume.